"ONCE upon a time there was great scarcity of food in the land. Father Anansi and his son, Kweku Tsin, being very hungry, set out one morning to hunt in the forest. In a short time Kweku Tsin was fortunate enough to kill a fine deer—which he carried to his father at their resting-place. Anansi was very glad to see such a supply of food, and requested his son to remain there on guard, while he went for a large basket in which to carry it home."
I was surprise by how Anansi appeared in the story once again. Anansi appeared almost every West African Tales. I think he might be the one who leads the stories of the West African folks, just like Odysseus from Odyssey, Achilles from Iliad. Sometimes they do not appear on the story or not the main character of the story but they are always involved in almost every story.
What I find interesting in the story was the presence of the dragon. Some of the cultures have a dragon in the story who is the symbol of wisdom, generosity, and kindness. Especially in Asian cultures, the dragons are shown as the helper of the human, the protector of the world, and the symbol of the kings who rules his people and sworn to protect his people. However, from the tale, the dragon is appeared as greedy, brutal and powerful creature. Just like western cultures.
"Soon after, Father Anansi made his appearance. He was greatly interested in his son's tale, and wished to see the dragon for himself. He soon had his desire — for the monster, smelling human flesh, hastily returned to the spot and seized them both. They were carried off by him to his castle, where they found many other unfortunate creatures also awaiting their fate.......The dragon then went off in search of more prey.....When Kweku was quite close to the top, the dragon had very nearly reached him again.."
I think I can rewrite story about dragons from two cultures or three gather up and talk about their stories.
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